Subscribe to BGO Mail!

BGO Mail is our latest and greatest of many member features. Keep up with Breaking Redskins News, Team and Site Announcements, Contest Updates, and all things BGO and Redskins! Subscribe to BGO Mail. Subscribing takes just seconds, as with all the Member Benefits at BGO, it's free!
Only members who subscribe to BGO Mail will receive it, and you may unsubscribe at any time.

On injuries:
“Jonathan Allen has a foot sprain. We’re getting an MRI on it tomorrow. [Bashaud] Breeland has a knee/MCL issue. We’ll get an MRI tomorrow. Could be a sprain, could be whatever. We’ll get an MRI on it tomorrow. [Montae] Nicholson has a shoulder [injury]. [Stefan] McClure has a knee sprain and [Fabian] Moreau has hamstring tightness at the end of the game. That’s it.”

On if he thought the team let up mid-second quarter:
“I don’t think so. I think we got up 17-0, they scored at the end of the half, put a nice drive together and then they got the ball coming out in the third quarter. Got to 17-10 and then we had the big turnover and let them back in it and next thing you know, it’s 17-17. I knew after that it was going to be a dogfight. I mentioned before they have a lot of good players. I think it’s their fifth game in a row they’ve lost by three or less points, so hats off to them. They’re well coached and played hard, but fortunately we came out with the victory.”

On how he thinks QB Kirk Cousins played:
“I thought he played efficient. He had the one pick on third-and-long. It was bad play design by us, but it was like a punt so it didn’t hurt us at all. Other than that, I think he threw for over 300 yards, had a touchdown run and a huge scramble for us again so I think he’s doing well.”

On the call on TE Vernon Davis’ fumble:
“I thought the wrist was down, but they had the luxury of the replay and talking to New York and everybody else who had an opinion on the play. Since it was called a fumble, I imagine that’s why they called it a fumble. I’m sure that’s the rule we’ll get.”

On the performance of the younger defensive backs:
“I think they all stepped up. You’re talking about not a lot of experience back there. With Montae [Nicholson] playing safety, Fabian [Moreau], and you saw [Joshua] Holsey back there and Kendall [Fuller]. Obviously, [Quinton] Dunbar had a big day today. Very impressed with all of them. There was a coverage mix-up there that gave them a touchdown to get it back to a one or two-point game, but overall, I liked the way they competed, covered and played.”

On WR Josh Doctson:
“Josh, I think he had a big play early in the game for a touchdown. He’s still coming on, but we’re going to spread the ball so much that it’s going to be hard for us to sit in here and say that he did great or he did better. I think at the end of the day, most of those guys, if they’re great competitors, are going to be disappointed in their stat production but I like the way that Kirk [Cousins] is spreading the ball out. Chris Thompson had some catches, Josh, Terrelle [Pryor Sr.] had some early, [Jamison] Crowder showed up a little bit more today. [Samaje] Perine had some catches. That’s what we’re all about on offense. Vernon [Davis] had a couple.”

On what he saw from the team being able to make the plays to get the win:
“I’m excited about it. You start to feel better about your team when you’re not as happy after a win as you normally should be, but you have to understand that this is a great competitive sport, the National Football League. Everybody has great players. You can see we’re starting to turn a corner a little bit when you’re not quite as ecstatic as you normally would be after a win. I think there are a lot of things we can correct, clean up obviously, but I’m impressed. Any time you get a victory on a Sunday afternoon at home, it’s special. I know we can play a lot better.”

On what he noticed on defense in two-minute situations:
“They made some plays. Carlos Hyde hit us on a couple runs. We had a couple penalties that were uncharacteristic. A personal foul to give a touchdown at the end of the half was third down and three I think or third and four the way the personal foul gave an automatic first down and a touchdown. When you talk about Pierre [Garçon] and [Marquise] Goodwin had some big catches and Aldrick [Robinson] I think showed up and made some big catches. Quarterback played extremely well. Probably didn’t get as much pressure on the quarterback as I’d like to see so we have to try to fix that. Overall, don’t know the exact reason so I’ll have to look at it.”

On what he liked about the team’s response after the 49ers tied the game:
“I did like that. We did respond and hats off to Kirk for making them all happen with some scrambles. Ryan Grant had some big third down conversions. Vernon had the big play down the seam again. A little bit of everybody, but it can’t happen without the offensive line’s protection. Trent Williams, I can’t say enough about him playing with the pain that he played in. Morgan [Moses] was beat up a little bit. Spencer [Long] of course. [Brandon] Scherff and those guys and [Shawn] Lauvao played extremely well. It enabled Kirk some time and spread the ball around and got the key points.”

On how much thought he put into throwing on third down after recovering the onside kick:
“Oh, man, a lot of thought. I wanted to throw so bad. But I thought the right play, based off your guys’ decisions would be to run the ball. Had I thrown it on one of those downs and not converted or had an incomplete pass, they would have had a chance to use their timeouts. They would have gotten the ball back with about 1:40 as opposed to a minute. We ran off some time, thought of a play-action or a boot or a keeper or something like that, but it crossed my mind, yes.”

On committing to the run:
“We knew it wasn’t going to be that easy to run the ball. They have a big, gigantic four-man front, and Eli Harold is an outside backer and they bring the safeties down inside the box a lot. It’s not easy running against them, but we did try to stick it out and get some different personal groups and try to help matters, and increase them with some runs and some pulls and some gaps. It just didn’t happen for us today, so next week will be another week. We’ll focus on it again and try to get better.”

On if this was a potential letdown game coming off a bye and facing an 0-5 team:
“I made that point right when we got there. I don’t think I really had to talk about a letdown in the National Football League when Pierre Garçon is coming back and Kyle Shanahan coming back and Logan Paulsen and all these guys, and they’re trying to get their first win. People know if you play long enough in football, whenever you put the pads on, it’s going to be a competitive day. And our guys responded, competed, let them back into the game, unfortunately, but you know, they’ve got good players too. We responded and got the victory. That’s all that matters.”

On using the read option throughout the game:
“I don’t love it, but I do like it. It gets the numbers back in your favor a little bit. You turn around, hand it to the back, you can pluck six guys, maybe seven guys, and you know the eighth guy is always right there free, and that allows you to block one less guy free and that allows you to block one less guy, you read him. Obviously, Kirk [Cousins] is not exactly the read-option quarterback that you would be looking for if you were looking for a read-option quarterback, but he’s very effective at it. You know, those are huge plays for us. We can zone block the front side and just read that backside defensive end. If he doesn’t come on the quarterback, we hand it off and if he does, we keep it for a nice big play. Kirk’s been pretty good, pretty effective really.”

On deciding to increase RB Chris Thompson’s touches:
“It was a little bit pre-determined, but you know, Chris was in a flow throughout the game early. We’re going to have that screen up early – getting ready to call that and we just kept him in the game. [It] was either going to be on a no-huddle or not, but we got to it and he made a big play and Chris is a guy that in some of these – when we have three receivers and one back, he is usually the back. So we were allowed that personnel group today and some other runs we had in two-tight end sets were very good for him. So, just happy that he was part of the game plan a little more than usual.”